6 Ways to Boost your Midwinter Retail Sales

Between the New Year’s resolutions to save more money and the February blues that keep people at home, the midwinter season typically needs a little extra push to coax sales over the post-holiday slump.

However, if you step back on your marketing efforts now, those recently acquired holiday shoppers may forget about your store forever. So what can retailers do to drive sales and motivate their customers to return and spend again?

We will look at a few different approaches that can help retail businesses continue the conversation with their customers and keep the focus on their stores.

Examine Your Pricing Strategy

The midwinter retail season is extremely competitive. However, the drop in customer traffic can provide you with an opportunity to revisit your pricing. Consider your purchase costs and the price points where your store will make a profit.

Using the reporting features in most modern POS systems, you can analyze information around product, margins, inventory, and more. Find products or categories where you can tighten up your margins to edge out your competitors but still turn a profit. The right price is what will ultimately draw customers into your store and make them feel compelled to buy a product.

Push Your Most Profitable Products

Make up the difference from the decrease in sales by spotlighting higher-profit items. Focus on promoting your current high-profit lines by showcasing them prominently in-store and marketing them online.

Be sure your sales staff is knowledgeable about the features and benefits of your high-profit items, so that they are ready to up-sell and make suggestions about these products to every customer.

Offload Your Slow Movers

January and February are the ideal months to clear out any products that are not performing well. Pull up reports on your POS inventory module to identify the slow movers, because now is the time to promote them at a deep discount.

Use the discounted items to attract customers into your store then display full-priced items in strategic traffic areas. This way, customers are guided towards the high-profit items that you can then easily recommend.

Create Sneak Peek Events

Keep your customers engaged in your brand by offering them incentives to come back. To build excitement, give them exclusive sneak peeks at deals and new products that will be on offer in the coming weeks or months.

Leverage email to create marketing campaigns, and social media to generate buzz around new launches. Post content regularly on social media and your customers will look forward to hearing more about what’s happening in your store.

Fast-Track Loyalty Rewards

If your POS includes a customer loyalty management feature, accelerate your loyalty rewards program by offering to double or triple rewards. Reach out to your customers and let them know how much faster they can get rewards.

Sometimes it just takes a well-timed motivator like bonus loyalty points to get your customers energized and back into your store in January.

Plan Ahead With Gift Cards

Here’s one last exclusive sneak peek recommendation to help boost any future post-holiday slumps. With your December sales transactions, include a discount deal or gift card redeemable for purchases made specifically in January and February.

By offering purchase incentives like discounts between 10 and 20 percent, or $10 to $20 gift cards, you can effectively get customers returning to store. The short redemption window creates urgency and opportunities for repeat purchases exactly when you need them. Plus, once they’re in your store, customers will typically spend more than the redeemable value of a gift card.